I received the same garbled (computer text-to-voice) message as "khc" to call back the IRS before they would take action against me.
My taxes are current and I also have been contacted by the IRS a few years back BY MAIL not by phone. I agree with khc, this must be some kind of scam.
Caller ID says: Washington DC. Left message on answering machine. A long, slightly garbled message, in a woman's voice [sounding like a computer text-to-voice program] warning me to call back at the IRS before they would "take action against me."
My taxes are up-to-date. I actually have been contacted by the tax authorities many years ago; they contacted me by mail, with a case number, contact phone numbers, legal protocols, etc. This is almost certainly a phishing/impostor scam.
I received the same garbled (computer text-to-voice) message as "khc" to call back the IRS before they would take action against me.
My taxes are current and I also have been contacted by the IRS a few years back BY MAIL not by phone. I agree with khc, this must be some kind of scam.
Report the Calls to the real IRS here:
•report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484.
•You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov. Add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments in your complaint.
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Do consider maybe getting a call blocking device or phone.. You can google them and many are around $50.00 or so.
This is a Pakistan or India based IRS scam. Do not fall for it. The IRS does not initiate any legal action via phone.
Read http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press_tigta-2014-03.htm
As general background information, here are a few things you can do:
1) Report it to TIGTA under http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml especially if you have become a victim (lost money, gave personal information etc.). You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at ftc.gov/complaint (include “IRS Telephone Scam" in your complaint). This way you can also help the government establish specific fraud patterns.
2) Help kill their phone lines but not by calling them back directly (the number may be spoofed and repeat calls by you may - under exceptional circumstances- amount to harassment). The scammers use Voice over IP lines (e.g. magicJack (Ymax corporation)) to make it seem as if they are calling from the US. This is always against these companys' terms of service and can lead to immediate termination of their contract and blocking of their IP addresses for future attempts to register. Do a reverse look up of their telephone number (e.g. www.whitepages.com) to identify the Voice over IP provider and report it to the company and/or law enforcement (local police and/or state attorney general)
3) If you are really annoyed: call or write to your representative in Congress. As these scams happen all over the country maybe this will trigger a reaction and provide US law enforcement agencies with the political backing and the resources they need to work in India and Pakistan together with local authorities (it can happen, read: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ex-call-cen ... mmission-320427). A US task force has already been set up in Jamaica to nab scammers there (see http://www.ice.gov/doclib/news/library/reports/cornerstone/cornerstone7-1.pdf). You can use the following template for your letter (more powerful!) or email: